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Ї Y Y Y ( ( џ n Y Y Y : ( ( 3 Y 3 Y ∆ Y ( @[4ƒёі—* Т Љ = Д 0 і 4 = 4 Y * * ў Notes for Grow North session at Netherton May 7th 2016
This time of year, here
Thinking like a plant
Space
Sowing
Weeding and thinning
Watering
Transplanting
Potatoes
Seed saving
This time of year, here
The weather's still pretty cool, soil's still pretty cold and fairly wet, but sunlight is going bonkers. Now's a game of gambling the dangers of cool temperatures against the need to take advantage of great sunlight. Day length is a sinewave, one cycle taking a year, and the time of maximum change is at the equinoxes, the next 13 weeks are when plants get their most energy from the sun. Weeds are becoming rampant. It's a struggle to get all your sowing and planting done to take advantage of the rapidly growing daylight whilst limiting unwanted competition. Accuweather forecasts a month ahead, it will be wrong but gives a general idea what the weather is likely to be.
Thinking like a plant
Energy, water, nutients: we need them, plants need them. Energy mostly by photosynthesis from sunlight, water and nutrients mostly via roots from soil. The leaves exhale water which draws up more water from the roots providing a circulation of nutrients. Plants want to have a happy life, grow big and strong, and produce lots of successful offspring. It's the least available of required resources / nutrients that limits growth (Liebig 1840). Just keeping in mind these simple facts makes a lot of gardening logical and common sense. It's even simpler, really, one main factor largely determines access to resources...
Space
Too close = smaller and possibly unusable produce, or even none.
Too distant = lower overall yield per area, possibly too big produce and later crop, more chance of competition from weeds.
Just right = healthy plants that do what you want (which may not be what the plant wants), a timely crop of right sized produce, and maximum usable yield.
Many crops benefit from even spacing in all directions but most OK with 2:1 max:min dimensions, some are fine with 10:1. I like to grow in blocks of 4 to 6 rows with the rows as close as the crop tolerates and can be hoed, separated by paths wide enough (about 21") to allow me to reach over and weed. Environment too poor or too good can be bad. Poor: plants give up, die, bolt, fail to crop. Good: life's great, can wait longer before fruiting or, conversely, go to seed now while things are so good. More space for early sowings gives quicker crops.
Sowing
Tricky one this, the objective is to sow just enough seed to give you plants at optimum spacing with as little thinning as possible. You need to compute the viability of the seed, how conducive conditions are, probable losses due to predators etc. In short: almost impossible. Mostly people sow too thickly, need to do a lot of thinning, do that too late and end up with poor crops as a result. 'Tis because they abhor gaps. Better strategy is to try to sow optimally, thin early, accept that gaps will happen, and pop something like lettuces into the gaps when they occur. Seeds like soil warm and moist, they need to be encouraged to wake up. Cold and wet is worst, seeds will rot; cold and dry is OK, they'll just sit there waiting a while, likewise if hot and dry. Depth proportional to size of seed but too deep is worse than too shallow (think like a seed to comprehend). Some seeds have special defences to stop them germinating unless conditions are right. Bought compost is best for small seeds but mix soil with compost for large seeds and potting on.
Weeding and thinning
Competition steals resources from your crop plants, thin and weed early to limit. Weeds are probably more optimised for the local environment than your crops are, it's their home after all. Some plants - like potatoes - once they've got going, dominate weeds sufficiently to barely need further weeding, others - like onions - are so pathetic that they need constant care to produce well. Use a variety of tools to suit the weeds, soil, crops, conditions and you. Hoeing is the fastest method but is best for level, stone free, dry ground when the weeds are barely visible. Rows need to be at least 8" apart to hoe safely, aim to glide the sharp (blunt is near useless) hoe blade quickly back and fore parallel to and just below the soil surface with the objective of severing weeds' roots from their stem. Onion hoes do similar at closer quarters. Multi-pronged things can be good for scratching out grass including couch. Long pointy forked things for young tap rooted weeds and the vertical roots of creeping thistle (you'll need to deeply dig out its horizontal roots). Fingers are excellent general purpose weeders, though slow. Watering after weeding is good, but let the weeds die for a day or so after hoeing. Beware your paws - front, back and knees, know where they are at all times.
Watering
Generally it's a good idea to leave plants grown in open ground to their own devices unless it's definitely too dry. Exceptions: seeds and seedlings, transplants, when the crop is growing rapidly, to avoid negative physiological defects like splitting in root crops. When you water do it seriously and in several passes, you want the water to percolate down and the roots to go deep following it. Watering little and often is bad, it encourages surface rather than deep roots. When dry it's actually quite hard for water to penetrate the soil, and water's progress into the soil is surprisingly slow. A rough surface absorbs better than a smooth one; moist soil absorbs better than dry soil, loose soil better than compacted. Waterlogged soil kills most plants' roots.
Transplanting
Always damages a plant's roots, even when it's been grown in modules or pots; transplant with care to minimise damage. Some crops tolerate transplanting quite well (leaf brassicas, leeks, tomatoes), some seriously dislike it (most root crops, sweetcorn). Transplanting as early as practical is usually best. When a plant grows it builds its above and below ground systems in balance, transplanting destroys part of the underground system so it can't support all the overground system - so the plant cuts off supplies to parts of the overground systems. Water is the most critical short term resource when you transplant and leaves lose a lot of water, pinching off some of the older leaves is often a good idea, provide ample water for a week after transplanting. Generally giving a plant plenty of water prior to transplanting is good but for plants grown in pots / modules it's better to have them almost dried out because the more solid compost / soil damages roots less when extracting. Transplanting typically sets an annual plant back about 2 weeks.
Potatoes
Plant from mid April with 4" soil above tuber. Orient rows to get best airflow, usually in direction of prevailing wind, to help thwart blight, ans so that water doesn't run away. Rows need to be 27" apart to decently earth up, 30" makes it easier, tubers 10-12" apart for 1st, 12-16" apart for 2nd, 14-18" apart for maincrops and lates. Smaller 1st early plants can be worth doing in double offset rows @ 12" between tubers. If soil is not compacted you can plant with trowel, else trench. Compost is fine along row on soil surface, no need to dig in, gets covered by earthing up. Expect first emergence in about 24 days, 50% in 30 days, 80% in 40 days, 100% in 45 days. You should start earthing up about late May and finish earthing up 1st earlies within 3 weeks. If frost threatens emerging shoots use fleece, a light covering of straw, or earthing up to cover shoots to protect, or a pre-dawn spraying (fine) of cold water to melt the frost before the sun hits - it's the sun on frosted leaves that damages them. Once 1st earlies are in, plant in order: lates, maincrops, 2nd earlies. You'll get reasonable crops from 2nd earlies planted in early June (unless they get blight), but maincrop yields will suffer if you plant later than mid May. Emergence can be in about 2 weeks from plantings mid May onwards. Harvesting 1st earlies about 13 weeks after planting in mid April will yield about 0.5kg per plant, waiting another 3 weeks will nearly double yield and, by then, 2nd earlies will be beginning to crop. If saving tubers for next year's seed dehaulm at least a week before lifting, only save from healthy plants and undamaged tubers, choose tubers that fit nicely in egg boxes, leave in daylight for at least a day to set their skins and store cool but frost free.
Seed saving
Do it! Your seed will very likely be significantly better than that you buy. If you have any leftover plants from autumn / winter / spring crops (carrot, parsnip, kale, broccoli, cabbage, turnip, chard, leek, swede, beetroot) you could use these to produce seed this year. Try to have about 8 plants of one variety for genetic diversity and do only one variety of each vegetable type, beware brassicas crossing, download the seed saving chapter of Grow North Guide from TBI website. Plan to save seed from summer fruiting crops like beans, peas, lettuce, salads. Don't save F1 seeds.
Practicals
Walk round, seed saving blocks, seed bed, lack of crops now (hungry gap), beginnings in PT, what could be eating now.
Try different weeding tools. Sharpening hoes. Thinning?
Transplanting (lettuces, onions).
Sowing tender beans, courgettes.
Planting potatoes.
Distribute seeds, potatoes if wanted.
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